At the moment, Skuld was in serious trouble. That Urd was also in trouble wasn't exactly comforting at the moment, though later it might be.
It really wasn't her fault, if Urd hadn't messed with it and activated the unit prematurely, there wouldn't have been a problem.
All she'd wanted to do was create something like the Steel Angels she'd seen in an anime. Of course with her technology and access to things like Angel Eggs, it could truly be called a Steel Angel. While combat angels were obvious, though they might be frowned down upon, Skuld had a different type of service in mind.
After all, if Goddesses like her big sister didn't have to come down and grant wishes, she wouldn't be stuck with Keichi. While the thing with Keichi had kinda worked out admittedly, the young goddess was eager to prevent it from happening again.
Thus she had created a prototype goddess capable of interacting with humans, being perfectly servile and accessing the Ultimate Force to grant their wishes. Even better, no one would miss them and if need be, she could create one for every wish to be granted.
Now her creation was out there somewhere, probably thinking she was a living sex doll thanks to Urd, and fully active.
Which was why she was on the phone trying to get the unit's access to Yggdrasil shut down before anything bad happened.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
"What do you mean she's already under contract?! Approved? How could that be approved? That's impossible, check the sub system for bugs!"
Listening for a moment allowed Skuld to calm down, though what she heard helped drop her mood further. "Oh, okay. I understand. Sorry for yelling like that."
Hanging up the phone, the little goddess heaved a huge sigh and sagged for a moment. Quickly straightening up, she stomped towards where Urd was still being lazy. "So, not a problem huh?"
Quirking an eyebrow up, Urd still didn't share Skuld's worries in the least. As such she simply ignored the little brat instead of answering.
For her part, Skuld was perfectly willing to explain why it was so bad, hoping to get a reaction from the lazy old hag. "She has a contract and we're both responsible for her. That means if I have to repair her, you have to go and fulfill the contract in the meantime...and if something happens to her, we both have to fulfill the contract by taking turns."
Urd was mildly worried at that point, only because it sounded like a hassle. "So? Just make sure your stupid little doll keeps working, or we just end the silly contract. It's not like they'd let a sex toy you created do anything serious.'
For a moment, Skuld turned red in anger. Then she calmed down as she considered at least getting Urd's goose might be the only small amount of good coming from this. "Oh? So, promising to be some guy's slave for the rest of time is nothing serious?"
Urd reaction was not as Skuld hoped. Instead of being properly horrified, she was impressed although in a somewhat condescending way. "Wow, I didn't know you had it in you squirt, your little sex doll went all out huh?"
Infuriated that Urd still wasn't taking this seriously, the young goddess stopped being coy. "This isn't like Keichi's wish, it means being unable to say no, and having to do anything he wants. He could make us do anything!"
Urd looked up intently. "So, is he cute?"
"Arrrhhhgggg!"
Smiling at the cute couple, Kasumi finished putting the ingredients for supper up. Once her kitchen was safely in order, she took Ranma by the hand, leading him out of the kitchen. "Alright Ranma-kun, let's see what clothing we can find. She looks like maybe some of your costumes might fit her."
Blushing from the reminder, but mostly because he had a girl holding each of his hands, Ranma allowed himself to be led from the kitchen without protest.
Unfortunately their course meant passing in sight of the family room, where most everyone gathered at some point during the day. Hearing people in the house, the ever curious Nabiki looked up from her manga for a moment. As they were in the hallway and already almost to the stairs, she only had time to quirk an eyebrow.
As only Nabiki had seen them and she was feeling more lazy than curious, they went upstairs without incident.
Once in the relative safety of Kasumi's room, Ranma breathed a sigh of relief at having a little more quiet.
Kasumi on the other hand was busy going through her closet, looking for clothes that might fit their guest. Not finding anything thrilling in her own closet, Kasumi set out one of her old plain dresses so the girl could have some choices. Swiftly moving on, she pulled a box out from her closet, sifting through Ranma's collection of various female costumes.
For his part, Ranma was mildly perturbed that Ren had no interest in Kasumi's old dress, apparently quite content to continue wearing just his shirt. On seeing the box of costumes, Ranma was once again glad that Kasumi never made a fuss about them like other people might. The older girl had actually helped him with his various disguises, something Ranma attributed to her just being nice.
From the costume box, Kasumi pulled three more outfits, a bunny-girl outfit, a maid outfit and a silk Chinese dress. Unfortunately unless they raided Akane and Nabiki's closets, they weren't going to much more that would even come close to fitting her figure.
Sighing, Ranma tried explaining things to the girl. "Okay, just pick an outfit, cause you need to wear something."
Getting a questioning look from her as Ren plucked at the collar of her shirt, he elaborated, "I mean you can't just wear a shirt. You need an outfit to wear.".
Nodding in understanding, Ren quickly zeroed in on the maid outfit, understanding it was proper clothing for a girl serving her master.
Trying to be helpful, Kasumi explained what the outfit meant just in case the girl was clueless about it. "That's a maid outfit. When you wear one at home, it's typically to make a special someone happy. A maid has a Master to make happy by serving him and tending to his needs."
Sighing as Kasumi sold Ren on the entire maid thing and probably gave the poor girl some more ideas, Ranma was surprised when Ren removed his shirt. More surprisingly, she stopped once she was nude, cuddling his shirt to her chest.
Looking away while huffing another breath out, Ranma caved in to her. "Alright Ren, you can keep my shirt if you want to. Just please put something on."
Nodding and reluctantly placing his shirt on the bed, she picked up the maid outfit. As Ren started with the lingerie, Ranma was just glad the stupid steel corset was no longer part of the outfit.
Once she was dressed, it was painfully obvious that the outfit didn't fit the girl. While she was petite, she was more slender than Ranma's curvy female form. Before Kasumi could move to start adjusting the outfit, Ren tugged at the ring on her collar. After a brief flash of light, the jade haired girl was standing in an entirely new maid outfit. Not only did the new outfit fit her perfectly, outlining every curve, but the style was improved with a number of accessories added to the outfit including a pair of high heels.
Eyes wide in surprise, Ranma looked over at Kasumi in worry about her reaction.
For her part the oldest sister put a hand to her mouth in shock as she stared in awe at the magical transformation. "Oh, what a neat trick. That's a very pretty outfit Ren-chan."
Hearing Ren's voice in his head again, Ranma decided an explanation was in order. Twiddling his fingers, he stumbled with his words to begin. "Uhm, well, you see, Ren kinda isn't a normal girl. She's, uh, kind of a magical girl. I'm not really to sure what's up with her, but I can kinda hear her speak in my head."
Looking away from Kasumi's curious gaze, Ranma lamely wound up his speech. "Uhm, so yeah. She wanted to know if the other outfits were for her too."
Smiling at the thought of having such a special quest in her house to make things more interesting, Kasumi answered cheerfully. "Of course. They're all for you dear. I'm sure Ranma would love to see you in them."
Hearing that, Ren brightened up, making Ranma blush as she tugged on her collar again, this time making her maid outfit disappear in a flash of light.
At that point Kasumi provided a distraction of her own, calling out while holding a black dress up to herself. "Here's the maid outfit I've been working on. I think it'll go real well with my new apron. What do you think?"
Hearing a sound of approval from Ren, Ranma decided to compliment Kasumi while rubbing the back of his head bashfully. "Uh, yeah, it's looks really nice. You should wear nice stuff like that more often."
Blushing, Kasumi hugged the dress to her chest, happy to be complimented for her hand made costume. Made of black satin, it was the nicest dress she'd ever owned, possessing stylishly simple clean lines to it which spoke of her skill. Unfortunately, Ranma missed the implication that Kasumi's explanation of what a maid dress meant likely was what she thought of wearing the dress herself.
Putting down the maid dress, Kasumi surprised Ranma by reaching under her dress and removing her bra. Blushing heavily, the older girl bravely continued onwards, pulling her panties down while still wearing her dress. "I have a new lingerie set to go with my dress Ranma-kun. This will only take a moment."
Somehow finding Kasumi's shy modesty worse than Ren's complete lack of modesty, Ranma looked away.
Seeing another flash, Ranma looked back just in time for Ren to be nude once again. While her lack of modesty was in and of itself more comforting, the way she moved as a result while looking at the bunny-girl outfit was worse as she made no attempt at all to shyly hide certain parts of herself.
Looking back at Kasumi, he caught sight of her just in time to catch her with the top down as she struggled to adjust the straps to her new lace-edged peach colored bra.
Blushing brightly with his head whipping back and forth between two indecent women, Ranma forgot all about the possibility of turning around and staring at the wall.
After a few moments of this, Ranma was saved any further embarrassment as someone opened the door, barging into the room. Upon seeing it was a certain irate tomboy, Ranma went into full on panic, falling back onto Kasumi's bed in an attempt to get away from Akane. All his troubles got him however was an armful of nude Ren, whom was quite happy to cuddle and nuzzle her Master.
From behind Akane, Nabiki was impressed. She knew logically that this was all circumstance, but even she felt like calling Ranma a pervert. Off to the side, there was Kasumi, looking surprised in her peach lingerie set with stockings as she held a black dress up to herself to protect her modesty. The main feature though was Ranma on the bed, his shirt discarded, with that strange new girl nude and getting affectionate with him. Even though she knew intellectually that Ranma had just been too shy to think to leave the room and both girls had probably stripped of their own accord, the situation looked bad.
Akane on the other hand was so upset she couldn't even think straight. Thanks to Nabiki's warning she had caught her cheating fiancé in bed with some new slut. Even worse, it was Kasumi's bed and with Kasumi half-dressed there was no telling what the pervert had done to her. "What the hell are you doing you pervert? I don't care who the new slut is, but how dare you do this to Kasumi of all people? Isn't there any sick thing you won't do?"
As Akane pulled at the covers of the bed to try and get them in reach, Ren in turn tried to crawl away from the angry girl. Scared out of her mind, she was crawling up Ranma's body until she was curled up around his head, coincidentally thinking she was shielding him with her body.
Akane on the other hand had a perfect view of the nude girl's upraised rear as it was pointed almost straight at her. The brazen sight was so strong as to make her so angry she couldn't even shout coherent accusations anymore.
Feeling someone grab her shoulder, Akane turned sharply to deal with whomever was interrupting her punishing Ranma. As she turned, her elbow smacked into something soft and squishy, puzzling her slightly despite her anger.
Finally turned around, Akane's first sight was a pair of lace encased breasts, still bouncing from her unintended elbow strike. Looking up into Kasumi's face, the fire immediately left her eyes as she got a look at her big sister.
Seeing her sister in her lace trimmed lingerie had been a jarring sight to Akane, as she'd never seen Kasumi in anything remotely sexy. Kasumi had instead always projected the image of a subdued housewife who didn't do anything remotely racy. For most women, being clad only in peach colored lace lingerie and white stockings would have destroyed any sense of authority, but on Kasumi it was shocking to the point of actually making her look dangerous.
It didn't help any that her sweet innocent naive older sister was so angry she was having to bite her lip just to restrain herself. "What in the hell are you doing Akane? What gives you the right to barge into my room like this? Do you even know what you're doing? Do you even have a clue?"
Hearing Kasumi's painfully rough voice almost crying was worse than hearing her big sister screech in anger. Backing wildly away from the menacing Kasumi, she fell back onto the floor, still trying to crawl backwards.
Once Akane was up against the wall, Kasumi stopped, trembling from her own turbulent emotions. Speaking up again, this time her voice was dangerously quiet, though still pained. "Go to your room Akane. I'll have a talk with you later after I've cleaned up this mess."
After a moment of waiting for Akane to leave, but seeing no progress, Kasumi spoke up again, this time angry and loud as her control slipped. "I said get out of my room! Now!"
Now scrambling into action, Akane scooted out of the room as fast as she could, disappearing down the hall to the safety of her own room.
Stalking forward, Kasumi didn't allow the instigator of this mess off the hook either. "Nabiki!"
Hearing the warning tone of Kasumi and coming face to face with with the wrath of her older sister, the middle sister gave a squeak of surprise before disappearing into her own room.
Heaving a pained sigh, the eldest sister gently closed her door, restoring a modicum of privacy to her room.
Gazing back to her bed, she saw her two guests backed up to the headboard of her bed in fright. She really felt bad for both of them. That Ren was scared so after what she'd been through was truly terrible. That Ranma was scared was bad in its own way, as it was easy to understand why he was panicked.
Like anyone else, he was sometimes afraid of the unknown, and he rarely even had a clue as to why Akane got so angry at him. Worse, he'd seen her lose her own temper with Akane, which had likely shaken him just as badly.
Taking a moment to gather up her bedding allowed her to calm her own nerves. Among her covers she found the silk shirt Ranma had given to Ren, apparently the girl's only treasured belonging. The absence of the rest of the clothes proved that Ren had managed to assimilate them all into her strange collar.
Piling the bedding up, she sat on the edge of the bed, attempting a comforting smile for her guests but only managing a wan smile at best. "It's alright now, the big fuss is over."
Handing the silk shirt over, the thin girl desperately cuddled it to her in an attempt to find comfort.
Sighing wistfully at the sight, Kasumi put a comforting hand on Ranma's arm. "Don't worry, it'll be okay Ranma-kun, I promise. Just be brave for Ren-chan, okay?"
Smiling as he was already putting his tough guy act back up, the older girl got up to give them a little space in which to calm their own nerves. Walking over to her discarded dress, she pondered what to do for a few moments. Then steeling her own nerves, she slipped the dress on, followed by the large ruffled apron. Stepping over to her mirror, she took a moment to straighten the various pieces of her outfit, wanting to make sure she had it on right.
Satisfied with her appearance and with her own balance partially restored, she approached her bed once again.
Gazing at Ranma, she could tell things weren't alright as he was looking pensive and worried, which was always a bad state to see him in. For her part Ren looked up in what Kasumi assumed to be hope, offering the shirt back to her with trembling hands.
Curious, Kasumi looked back questioningly until Ranma spoke up, explaining for Ren. "She wants to give you her precious treasure. It's a gift for being...well...kind of like a big sister to her...I think..."
After thinking about it for a moment, Ranma puzzled out Ren's odd thoughts, putting a slight damper on Kasumi's warm moment of basking in the affection of Ren's gift. "Uhm...She's kinda taking the maid thing seriously...with you in that outfit, she thinks you're my maid too, and that you're sisters that way."
Smiling her own private little smile, Kasumi gave the jade haired girl a contemplative look, speaking up with a slightly amused tone. "Well, I suppose it's true. As a proper maid I have to have a Master to serve, and that would be you Ranma-kun. Isn't that right Ren-chan?"
Staring at Kasumi in shock, the young man was a little too emotionally worn to question her hysterically like he would have wanted.
Unfortunately, doing so would have prevented Kasumi from questioning Ren with a smile on her face. "So, he's your Master isn't he Ren?"
Getting an enthusiastic nod from the now happy girl, Kasumi formed a wistful smile of her own. "He must be very precious to you Ren-chan."
Handing the shirt back to the nude girl, Kasumi preempted her confused expression at having her gift returned. "It's okay Ren-chan. We can share it if you want, but for now, you hold on to it, okay?"
Nodding happily, the simple minded girl snuggled the shirt while cuddling up to her precious Master.
Her master on the other hand didn't have a clue what to think of his current situation.
The way Kasumi was smiling at him wasn't helping either.
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(Posted Fri, 11 Aug 2006 19:30)
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